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Home Poetry

Chinese Cameos by Damian Robin

March 27, 2015
in Poetry
A A
1
poems Chinese Cameos by Damian Robin

Chinese Cameo 13

Exacting Nazis whittled down The Jew –
full name, gender, skill type, stamp, tattoo;
segued ringlets, noses, black felt hats,
with wriggling germs and cancer cells and rats;

and boiled them down to soap; and took their scalps;
and piled belongings up in mini Alps;
some escaped; some were killed un-inked;
some still missing, the chains of grief unlinked …

In Chinese Army hospital and camp,
tortured, half-dead, half-clothed, unwashed yet damp,
the noted, data’d, human organ stores.

On bunks, on benches, edges, toilet floors,
registered with keystroke, bruise, and scar,
the bodies that make observers who we are.

Notes:
A large quantity of organ transplants from prisoners of conscience in China is carried out in State Army hospitals.
A database of blood type and other health data is kept to help organ matching for local and international clients

 

Chinese Cameo 15

Imagine Buddhas wielding cosmic circles
turning vivid cogs and hubs through spirals,

moving beads and threads and necklaces
to mock-up weather maps in high-classed spaces.

Further down, icebergs bigger than towns
loose cracked-off edges, are smoothed as coastline drowns.

And nearer, displaced water slaps the flat
double glazing that stops us feeling that.

Listen, downstairs, a last legs washing machine
will not rinse the roving sky’s slate clean

where silver iodide and moaning, spitting
drones are flung at smog in clogged Beijing …

In climate change we sense what we’ll achieve
is stuck like ice in what our heart’s believe.

Notes:
Though not the only owner of smogged cities, China is the country most openly throwing money at this problem.
Silver iodide was used to seed the Beiiing sky during the 2008 Olympics.
More recently
https://money.cnn.com/2014/03/07/news/china-pollution-drone/index.html

Chinese Cameo 16

November seemed so far away in June.
Now here, a milk skin on a once-warm moon.

It’s not that time went quick – just what she’s seen
repeats – without retreats, no in between –

just constant dull disturbance of deep nerve-chains,
the purposeful re-wrapping of parcels of pains,

diff’rent indiff’rences in staff and tools,
skin and flesh part-opened, fluid in pools,

no fam’ly visits, no talking at tables, no phones,
no home-made packages, no nurturing tones.

Such sentences appear around the world –
“A naked inmate kicked to the floor stays curled,

beaters keep her from cov’ring her breasts and vagina.” –
So what’s so special with innocence in China?

Note:
Based on the experiences of Yin Liying
https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2013/10/13/142691.html
“I Still Tremble When I Think About It – I Was Locked Up
In a Men’s Cell at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp” (Part 1)
 https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/1/7/144242.html
“I Still Tremble When I Think About It – I Was Locked Up
In a Men’s Cell at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp” (Part 2)
 https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/1/9/144263.html
“I Still Tremble When I Think About It – I Was Locked Up
In a Men’s Cell at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp” (Part 3)

 

Chinese Cameo 21

The CCP’s still ‘at it’ – ‘making good’
from the finger dips of theatre blood.
They check each human’s ordered; count the pay;
then the meaty, sewn-up takeaway.

Of course, it’s more precise than this appears,
they’ve been matching organs for many years
for any client from any walk of life –
you give the greens, you walk straight under the knife.

From U.S., Europe, Chile, Russia, U.K.,
clients cover swathes of Earth to pay
for healthy goods – no alcohol, no smokers –
no dirty living except what prison brokers. –

What wars will beauty wage beneath the skin
that vain, deceitful death, and theft, begin?

Notes:
The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has reneged on its promise to stop organ harvesting from death row prisoners. Prisoners of conscience are also still harvested for their organs. Falun Gong practitioners’ organs have been specifically asked for as they do not drink alcohol or smoke, and, before the persecution, it was well know that their practice increased health.
             
https://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1099775-from-attack-to-defense-china-changes-narrative-on-organ-harvesting/?utm_source=Epoch10&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1
tiny url   https://tinyurl.com/oqnyhhq

 

Damian Robin lives in England. He works for an international newspaper and a bilingual magazine. He lives with his wife and three children.

Featured Image: “Red Wall” by Kunlun Zhang. Painting description: This work records the personal experience and internal turmoil of the artist, Professor Kunlun Zhang. Professor Zhang was imprisoned in China for three months, during which time he experienced physical and mental torture, including brainwashing. The two white Chinese characters (meaning persecution) on the red wall represent the persecution of Falun Gong in China, which is so oppressive that it makes China seem like one big prison. The crack in the wall indicates that despite the red wall’s menace and seeming invincibility, its collapse has already begun. (Falunart.org)

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Comments 1

  1. Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi says:
    12 years ago

    Absolutely stunning and raw imagery and lingering after effect; the rhyming couplets have a hard-hitting staccato.

    Reply

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  1. Roy Eugene Peterson on ‘Life Is Conflictual’: A Poem by Roy E. PetersonOctober 21, 2026

    Yael, such amazing comments. Thank you.

  2. Roy Eugene Peterson on ‘Life Is Conflictual’: A Poem by Roy E. PetersonOctober 21, 2026

    Thank you, Paul, for your kind words.

  3. Cynthia L Erlandson on ‘Again Autumnal’: A Poem by K.J. SalzmannOctober 21, 2026

    Wow, I really love this one, K.J.! Somehow, autumn seems to evoke the word "again", more than the other seasons…

  4. Yael on ‘Life Is Conflictual’: A Poem by Roy E. PetersonOctober 21, 2026

    This is a lovely poem which deserves to be printed out, framed, and displayed prominently somewhere people can benefit from…

  5. Roy Eugene Peterson on ‘Again Autumnal’: A Poem by K.J. SalzmannOctober 21, 2026

    Excellent alliteration (especially p, s, and b).

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